


her mother's eyes

by MrsNoraPalmer



Series: Palmer Family [2]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, and is truthful, and so no one doubts she's ray's kid anyways, but she likes doing the dishes, he is shook, penny overshares, ray palmer is basically the pikachu meme the whole fic, set in some random bit of season 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-18 12:43:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17581079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrsNoraPalmer/pseuds/MrsNoraPalmer
Summary: “Ray… could you come to the bridge. Someone here is demanding to see you.”Ray, confused because they were in the temporal zone, wondered who could be on the bridge? Maybe she just meant over the coms? Ray shook his head and walked onto the bridge. Before he could register what was happening something small flew into his legs. A little girl, no more than five or six, grabbed onto his legs for dear life.“DADDY!!!!”A companion piece to stuck in the past (but seeing the future) because both fics are Nora and Ray respectively meeting children they definitely don't have yet and are incredibly confused about it.





	her mother's eyes

**Author's Note:**

> I completely and utterly blame the following humans: soph, beth, and dee for this idea. They are all to blame.

Everything seemed to settle on the Waverider. The newbies: Nate and Amaya, were finally adjusting (and getting close to one another it seemed) they were on the hunt for the missing pieces of the spear of destiny and Ray was just… he was just living his life. Thoughts of Kendra still stung, clothes he hadn’t worn since before she left still smelled like her. Her ghost haunted his space. His lab, his room, something was always able to remind him of her and how he was second best. Again. Would he ever reach a point in life where someone wouldn’t leave him for something better or the great beyond? Or would he just be the ATOM until he put himself into an early grave from it.

Ray sighed, this was no way to live. He loved his teammates. They were his family. But there was still that longing in his heart that after Anna died only seemed to grow. It grew the further he got from ever having it. He sat down a screwdriver and scrubbed a hand over his face. He finally registered someone was calling for him over the coms.

“Yeah Sara?”

“Ray… could you come to the bridge. Someone here is demanding to see you.”

Ray, confused because they were in the temporal zone, wondered who could be on the bridge? Maybe she just meant over the coms? Ray shook his head and walked onto the bridge. Before he could register what was happening something small flew into his legs. A little girl, no more than five or six, grabbed onto his legs for dear life.

“DADDY!!!!”

Ray’s heart bottomed out. Not again! He tore himself away from the little girl and looked her over. “Hey… hey… little one… I’m not… I’m not your dad.”

“Yes you are!”

Ray frowned and observed her. She had the classic all limbs Palmer bone structure but had softer features, a smaller nose, rounder face with a more pointed jaw, and… beautiful gray eyes. The hair could be his or a mix of him and the girl’s mother, he wasn’t certain. It was pulled back in pigtails and she sported overalls with the smallest navy blue Palmer Tech shirt he’d ever seen.

“What’s your name?”

The girl crossed her arms over her chest, displeased that her father just as equally didn’t recognize her. “Penelope Anne Palmer, you and mommy and basically _everyone_ calls me Penny. You only call me Penelope when I’m in trouble like last week when I put peanut butter in Tori’s shampoo.”

“Penny, how did you get here?”

“A bad man grabbed me and shoved me through one of Uncle Cisco’s breachers!”

Ray chuckled. She had probably meant breaches and smooth down her hair and played with one of her pigtails. “Okay well are you hurt? Do you need food or water?”

“I’m okay, I’m just scared and I just wanted you daddy but Aunt Sara didn’t recognize me! And Aunt Charlie said her name was Amanamaya!”

“Amaya,” Amaya corrected from across the room.

Penny sighed. “And mommy’s not here and Aunt Ava isn’t here but daddy you’re here!” Penny threw her arms around his neck.

Ray was stunned, he hadn’t really recognized the physical contact when Penny had first crashed into his legs. But now, she was holding onto him and it hit him. Tears pricked at the back of his eyes. This was his daughter. He picked her up and hugged her close. Ray cupped the back of her head and tried not to cry. He didn’t know how this was possible but he was absolutely certain this was his little girl.

Ray pulled back and settled Penny on his hip. “So, I think she’s telling the truth.”

“Of course I am! Daddy you said to _always_ tell the truth!”

Sara laughed. “She’s your kid, Ray, that’s for sure.”

Ray chuckled. “But could she be from another earth? That would explain why we don’t recognize her and she’s confusing people.”

“I mean it’s possible. We can see if her energy signature is different, Gideon can you do a frequency scan of our smallest Legend?”

“Certainly.” After a few beats of silence Gideon spoke again. “It would appear our youngest Legend is from our earth. She is approximately six years of age and from approximately twelve years from now.”

“How can you tell that, Gideon?” Ray asked.

“Environmental signatures picked up from her clothing give me something to carbon date. She is from approximately the year 2028.”

Ray sucked in a breath. In less than ten years he’d have a family. Even if it was just him and Penny somehow, he’d take it. Ray held her closer and kissed the top of her head. “Is there anything else you can tell us about how you got here, Penny?”

Penny tapped a finger to her lips and looked deep in thought. “Mommy had just picked us up from school and daddy you called mommy and we heard you because of the car phone thingy! And then!!!! Mommy took us to Jitters because Tori got all A’s on her report card and we all got hot chocolate with whipped cream and cara… cara… carmel!” She sighed, frustrated at her inability to say the word correctly. “And then we went home and I was playing with Chewie in the backyard when a bad man told me you and mommy did bad things to him and that I was how you guys were going to ‘pay’.” She airquoted pay with her fingers. “But you pay with money not people but then he shoved me into one of Uncle Cisco’s breachers!”

Ray sighed. Someone had displaced his daughter in time. To hurt him and his future mother of his children. He assumed maybe she was a future Legend? If Penny didn’t recognize anyone it wasn’t like he and Sara would ever… one day… no certainly not. She was like a sister to him and they were both too upset over Leonard and Kendra respectively.

His stomach rumbled which made the girl in his arms giggle. “Daddy! Mommy always yells at you when you forget to eat! Eaaatttt!!!”

Ray smiled. “Only if you join, me, peanut.”

“DUH! You always share your gluten free pizza with me.”

Ray smiled. She was definitely his daughter.

xxxx

The Legends all mulled about the kitchen, various pizza boxes lined the counter and Ray and Penny selfishly took their gluten free pizza box over to their seats at the table. Penny giggled behind her pizza at something Ray said about Mick and said that if he said it any louder Uncle Mick would say a swear word and he’d have to put a quarter in the swear jar.

“Do we keep a swear jar on the ship in the future?” Sara asked.

Penny shrugged. “I don’t know… mommy and daddy and Tori and Sydney and Danny and me all live in Ivy Town.”

Ray’s brow furrowed. “Ivy Town?”

Penny nodded. “Yeah daddy! Me and Tori share a biiiiggggg room upstairs and then Danny is in your old room and Sydney is in Uncle Sydney’s old room.”

Ray’s eyes widened. They lived in his old house? This didn’t seem possible. The fact that he even had a life at all that involved children seemed impossible.

“So Penny… you have two brothers and a sister?” Amaya asked.

Penny nodded. “Tori is in the third grade and is mean but daddy says she’s just like mommy, but I think she’s mean but mommy isn’t mean mommy gives me snuggles and cried when I made her a macaroni necklace. Then there’s Sydney, he’s in second grade, he’s always smelly, then there’s Danny, he’s in first grade, he’s okay I guess, but he’s a grade above me and thinks that makes him cool but I know for a fact he still wets the bed sometimes.”

Ray choked on his water as he collected the facts from Penny’s story. That mean… his kids were a year apart?

“Damn, Haircut,” Mick grunted. “Seems you and your missus get busy.”

Ray tried to not let his cheeks flush. Unless the kids were adopted he definitely did have four biological children in four years.

“Penny… you said Tori is mean but mommy isn’t. Can you tell me anything else about mommy?” It was self serving, sure, but he apparently had a good life.

“She’s… mommy! She’s really pretty and likes kissing you and saying bad words and she likes when you bring her flowers. Always the same pretty blue flowers”

“Pretty blue flowers?”

“Yeah! Like this one!” Penny put her pizza down and cupped her hands together, a bright purple light emitted from her hands and when she opened them, a Forget Me Not appeared.

Ray took the flower when Penny offered it and sighed at the irony. How could he forget about a family he didn’t even have yet?

And wait a minute. Did that kid just do magic?

He looked at his teammates, they had the same stunned expression. Penny went back to eating her pizza as if nothing happened.

“Ray…” Sara started.

“She didn’t get that from me.” Ray’s heart rate was faster now, his watch alerted him of the spike and he ignored it. Whoever he ended up with… had magic?

“Well… at least that’s eliminated any all past and present Legends then right?”

Ray nodded and looked down at Penny. She seemed perfectly normal. He twirled the flower between his fingers and tried to imagine walking into his home after a long day of work, feeling the crinkle of the brown paper that held the bouquet of Forget Me Nots as he made his way through his childhood home, a place he knew almost better than the Waverider, into the living room to greet his wife… who was faceless. Except for the eyes. He’d never seen such a striking color gray before. And one day he’d get to look into those eyes of a woman he'd love and would build a life with and suddenly his life didn’t seem so pointless.

He loved being a Legend and making a difference as the ATOM. He wouldn’t trade that for pretty much anything. But when he wasn’t the ATOM, he was just Ray and Ray didn’t have much in his life. Somehow, in less than a decade, he would. Actually, if his math was correct, by the end of 2019 he would be a father.

xxxx

After dinner, Ray took his usual place at the sink washing dishes. Penny demanded to be perched up on the counter next to him to help and who was he to deny his baby girl?

Ray handed Penny a dish and she meticulously dried the plate before setting it in the growing stack. She did the same with the cups and stacked them in fours. When the dishes were done Ray helped Penny down and she smiled up at Sara who had been watching them in the doorway.

Ray flashed Sara a grin and started putting away the dishes. “What’s up? Any leads on why she’s here?”

“Nope… just I think it’s cute…”

“Cute? I don’t think I’ve ever heard you use that adjective.” Ray laughed.

Sara rolled her eyes. “Well I’m talking about how much she’s like you. It’s like if we shrunk you down and put pigtails on you. She’s truthful and loyal and loves doing dishes.”

Penny grinned at her aunt Sara. “Mommy usually sits on the counter and helps daddy with the dishes but if mommy doesn’t feel good or is out with Aunt Mona I help him!” She proudly placed her hands on her hips.

Ray picked Penny up, upside down and the girl shrieked in joy.

“DADDY PUT ME DOWN!!!”

“Never!” Ray couldn’t help himself, until she left, he was going to indulge in being a father.

“Well, I’ll leave you two alone. It looks like she’s going to be here overnight so just fabricate whatever you need for her.”

Ray nodded and righted Penny in his arms. “Are you ready for a sleepover?”

Penny nodded eagerly. “CAN WE BUILD A BLANKET FORT?”

“OF COURSE!” Ray grinned and ran down the hallway to the fabricator with his daughter.

xxxx

Blanket fort, made. Hot chocolate with whipped cream and caramel sauce, drank. Penny in pajamas, done. Now Ray was settling into then bed with his daughter. She didn’t seem tired, which probably had more to do with the hot chocolate he gave her (rookie mistake) but Ray didn’t mind. They sat there talking about Penny’s interests and what she liked at school and what she liked to do for fun with her siblings when they weren’t being gross or mean.

“And then mommy paused the movie and told you that if you didn’t stop playing with her hair like that you would sleep with Chewie!!!” Penny giggled and covered her mouth.

Ray choked on his laugh, inferring the more salacious details from what must have actually happened. “Did I stop?”

“Yeah but then the movie ended and you made us all go to bed instead of making the blanket fort with us like you promised!”

Ray smiled and looked around the blanket fort they had constructed around his bed. “Well do you like this one?”

“Yes daddy I love it!” She grinned and hugged him.

Ray passed a hand through Penny’s hair and smiled as he felt the soft waves as his fingers ran through her locks. His hair was stick straight, she must get the texture from her mother. “What do you want to be when you grow up, peanut?”

Penny broke away and stood up on the bed. She proudly placed her hands on her hips and grinned. “I’m gonna be the ABCEO OF PALMER TECH!” She proudly declared.

“You are?!” Ray asked excitedly. “Is that what I do?”

“Yeah daddy! And mommy sometimes draws pretty pictures that help you at work!”

“She does? Can you draw?”

Penny nodded. “We all can but I don’t draw as much as Tori does. But Tori can do EVERYTHING. She wants to be a superhero when she grows up but I think she likes to act like she already is one.” Penny said and collapsed back onto the bed next to Ray.

Ray chuckled. “I’m sure that’s not true.”

“That’s what you and mommy think!” Her mood shifted to something slightly sour and Ray frowned, they’d clearly struck a chord.

Ray gathered his daughter into his arms. “Hey now. Penelope Anne, look at me.” He tipped her face so he could meet her eyes. “You’re just as amazing. A bad man wanted to take you away from us and you ended up here and you were scared sure, but that didn’t stop you from trying to find safe people to get help from. You were so brave today, peanut. I’m so proud of you. You and your sister are just different. It sounds like she’s more like mommy and you’re more like me. And that’s okay. Mommy isn’t any better than me and I’m not any better than her, we’re different and because you came from us, you each got to pick who you would be more like when you were in mommy’s belly and you picked me and I’m honored. I will be so incredibly happy to hand Palmer Tech over to you, one day. You’re gonna do amazing things, my beautiful, sweet daughter.” Ray kissed the top of her head. “Now we’ve had enough excitement for tonight. Go to sleep and we’ll figure out how to get you back to mommy and everyone tomorrow, okay?”

“Daddy can you read me a story first?”

“Of course, what do you want me to read you?”

“Tell me yours and mommy’s story! About the cursed princess and the knight!”

Ray’s brow furrowed. “I don’t know that story, can you tell it to me instead?”

Penny, exasperated, sighed. “I guess! You’re forgetting things today daddy!”

“I’m sorry, I’ll be better tomorrow!”

“It’s okay… so you always started it out with once upon a time. And so once upon a time, there was a sad princess who was locked in a tower guarded by a dragon! He was evil and full of mal… mall…”

“Malice?”

“YEAH! That word! He was full of malice! And the princess was sad and cursed to do whatever the dragon wanted because her daddy was mean and a bad man. But then one day, her daddy thought it would be a good idea to kidnap a knight from the round table! And then he met the princess and saw how sad she was and how she just wanted to make her daddy proud. And he vowed that he would make her smile.”

“Oh really?” Ray asked. Surely this was mostly made up? But Ray knew he’d spend the entire night pulling out factual details of what his life would hold one day.

Penny nodded. “Mmhmm! And then the knight got away from the bad man but knew the princess wasn’t bad, just sad, and he told all the other knights this but no one else wanted to help her! After a loooonnnggggg time, the princess broke free! And her daddy, the bad man, was eaten by the dragon! And when they knights defeated the dragon, the princess had to go away for a while, which made the knight sad, but then she came back to him! And then they realized that they love each other! And didn’t want to be away from each other! And then they got married in a BIIIGGG forest and the princess wore a pretty white dress and had a sparkly ring and the knight wore a handsome suit, well that’s what mommy sad, and then after they got back from their marriage vacation, the princess told the knight he was going to be a daddy! And then they had a baby and then another baby and another baby and then me!”

Ray's eyes went wide. His future wife, he could call her that, right? His future wife was out there somewhere, trapped? Maybe held against her will? And yet somehow in the span of a decade they both got a happy ending. They would eventually meet and fall in love and build a beautiful family together. Two boys, two girls, even a dog. In Ray’s zoning out he hadn’t noticed Penny had fallen asleep on him. Ray smiled and gently laid her back onto his bed and started diassembling the blanket fort. When it was all done he jumped back finding a woman in his room. An angel? No she was definitely corporeal.

“Ugh…”

“Don’t be alarmed.” She held up her hands. “I’m not here to harm you, or her.” She gestured to Penny.

Ray’s brow furrowed as he took her in. Just under a foot shorter than him, long wavy black hair, long maroon cardigan, gray shirt, jeans. The gray in her shirt made her eyes pop, the gray eyes. It clicked. He glanced between Penny and then to the woman.

“Are you… her mother?”

“Well I mean…” the woman approached him. “I’m also your wife.” She slipped her hands into his.

“What…”

“Hey.” She flashed him a smile that made me him feel at home.

“What’s your name?”

“Nora.” She reached up to cup his cheeks.

“That’s really pretty, you’re really pretty.” Ray blushed and ducked his head.

“Oh, my bashful husband.” She ran her thumbs across his cheeks.

“Did ugh, did my current self not what to come? Oh god am I dead?”

Nora laughed and Ray thought it was the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard. “No, no, we just wanted to avoid the whole seeing your past self business so I went instead. You were hesitant because you were pretty sure that you wouldn’t believe I was your wife.”

Ray shrugged. “Well… I am having a hard time believing it but something at the same time feels right.” He took one of her hands and placed it over his heart. “In here.”

Nora swallowed hard. “I wish… I wish I didn’t have to wipe your memory.”

“But Penny definitely told me too much.”

Nora nodded. “Yeah. She takes your mantra of always tell the truth a little too seriously.” She chuckled. “But I’m glad you got to hear our love story.”

“I’m sorry… whatever you’re going through right now, I’m going to do everything in my power to help you.”

“I know, I’m sorry if I’m a little resistant first. But I fall pretty quick once I give in. I’m just as surprised that we have the life we have so…”

“Is that why we had four in four?”

“Part of the reason… I love you and I didn’t want life to slip through our fingers. Neither did you.”

“I really get to have a life? And a life with you?...”

Nora nodded and pressed something into his hand. He looked down, it was a photograph. “Is this…”

“Our family? Mmhmm.” Nora tucked herself into his side and pointed out their other children. “That’s Victoria, she’s almost ten. Growing up too fast if you ask me.” Nora chuckled. “And then that’s Sydney, he almost nine, and Danny, he’s almost eight, and Penny, you met, she’s almost seven.”

“I just…” he looked at himself in the photo. He looked so happy, the proud father Ray always wished he could become. “Nora, I can’t believe this, I’m sorry, it’s just a lot.”

“I know… I wasn’t going to say much more but I couldn’t help myself. I know we’re going to wipe your memory and I just had… I just had to find a way to give you hope, even if you wouldn’t remember it.”

Ray pulled her into a hug, a tight hug that made him feel like he was taking the first breath of fresh air since Kendra left and yet at the same time felt like he was suffocating in the overwhelming feeling that this would be his life one day.

Nora pulled back and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him gently.

When their lips touched, Ray couldn’t breathe. This felt right. This would be his future. Ray cupped her face and pulled away. “Are you sure you have to go?”

Nora chuckled. “Yes, I’m sorry, I wish I didn’t, or I wish I could find you two years sooner but it’ll all work out.”

“I wish… I wish I could remember you somehow, without messing up the timeline.”

“Me too,” She took him over to the bed and sat next to him. “I know you’re hurting, about Kendra, and why literally anyone would think there was a better choice out there than you, l’ll never know…” Nora chuckled.

“Because being soulmates trumps some guy that’s just okay.”

Nora took his face in her hands. “Ray, you’re more than just okay. You’re everything. You’re everything I ever wanted even when I didn’t realize it. You… you’re the best thing that ever happened to me. You’re my first pick, always. Always, always, always. Sometimes we have moments where I don’t think I’m good enough for you but I’ve never thought you were anything other than the best.”

“Not enough for me? I have a woman that loves me and doesn’t leave and gives me four beautiful children. You are everything I ever wanted and I don’t even know anything about you.” Ray kissed the inside of her palm.

Nora moved into his lap. “You sound just like my Ray.” She placed her hands at the base of his neck and he could feel the cool metal of her wedding set, reminding him this was _real._ She was real and she’d be his wife one day. “It’s almost a shame Penny is the reason I’m here, I’d love to really show you just how much you mean to me.” She cocked an eyebrow.

Ray choked on a laugh. “Oh umm… well…”

“But you’ll be getting plenty of that in about hmm two years?” She tapped her finger to her lips much like he’d seen Penny do earlier that day. “It’s only two years, I hate that it’s two years but it’ll be here before you know it.”

“And in three years I’ll really be a father and a husband?”

Nora nodded. “Yeah, you will. And we’ll live happily ever after in our house. And you’ll talk me into letting you get a big dog.”

“Named Chewie!” He grinned.

“Yes, named Chewie. You and Tori BEGGED me. She is just like me in basically every way except for how much of a nerd she is.” She shoved his shoulder lightly. “That she gets from you."

Ray chuckled. “Penny did magic… you…”

Nora nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I do. I don’t really do it anymore but I did help people once. But before that I was hurting them. I almost hurt you and I’m sorry for that.”

“Hey it’s okay, you weren’t bad, just sad.” He chuckled, quoting his daughter's fairy tale. “I’m assuming your father had a lot to do with your past acts?”

“My father is Damien Darhk, so yeah he did.”

Ray’s eyes widened. “Your father is who?” Ray gulped. “Aren’t you… aren’t you supposed to only be like thirteen right now?”

Nora shrugged. “Time travel babe. We meet when I’m only a year or two younger it’s fine.”

Ray breathed out a sigh of relief. “Nora Darhk is my future wife.”

“Mmm yeah but I’ve been Nora Palmer for the past eleven years.”

“I get married and get to be married for over ten years?”

“Till death do us part, my love.”

Ray rested his head on her chest and breathed her in. "Do you really have to go?"

Nora nodded and pulled away. She gave him a sad smile and kissed him again. "It's only two years, I promise they'll fly by."

"I can't wait to fall in love with you, Nora."

"Mmmm and I can't wait for you to fall in love with me." She kissed him one last time, hard, wanting to somehow transfer hope, a sliver of a memory, into his lips, so he wouldn't think his life was so bleak. She got off his lap and picked up her sleeping daughter, who thankfully slept like the dead.

Ray pulled his family into an embrace and kissed the top of Penny's head and then kissed Nora's lips in a quick, domestic kiss. He stood back and closed his eyes, nodding at her to go ahead and wipe his memory. There were two flashes of light and then he opened his eyes to an empty room, disoriented. Why were there so many blankets on the floor? He sighed and packed them away. Ray settled onto the bed and when he reached over to turn out the light, his brow furrowed. Why were there two small hair ties on his nightstand?

Shaking his head, clearly he was disoriented from a dream and seeing things. He turned out the light and rolled onto his back, readying himself for another day of his bleak existence. 

And two years later, Ray’s life force was winking out and his eyes settled onto the gray ones of the woman that laid dying in her father’s arms. They were piercing and full of anguish and somehow familiar, with the potential for love and warmth in them.


End file.
